


Cold Security

by Nixie_DeAngel



Series: ColdWestAllen Weeks [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff not Fear, M/M, Multi, Non-Criminal Len, Polyamory, Reformed Criminals, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, metas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 17:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8542900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixie_DeAngel/pseuds/Nixie_DeAngel
Summary: It’s not rare, at least, not rare anymore for a bond to be split three ways. Still though, it’s not as common to find two sets of first words on your body. And most people who do have more than one set, they usually keep that knowledge to themselves, because you may have more than one soul-mate, that doesn’t mean your soul-mates are meant for each other.Len’s 27 the first time he hears a set of his words being spoken aloud, and immediately hates himself when the young voice registers in his ears. She’s young, not quite high school age, maybe a few years younger than 16 year old Lisa.





	

**Author's Note:**

> * Day One of ColdWestAllen Week 2016, Soul-mates.
> 
> Enjoy!!!

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It’s not rare, at least, not rare anymore for a bond to be split three ways. Still though, it’s not as common to find two sets of first words on your body. And most people who do have more than one set, they usually keep that knowledge to themselves, because you may have more than one soul-mate, that doesn’t mean your soul-mates are meant for each other.

Len’s 27 the first time he hears a set of his words being spoken aloud, and immediately hates himself when the young voice registers in his ears. She’s young, not quite high school age, maybe a few years younger than 16 year old Lisa.

 

( _“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there, that was totally my fault,” she rushes to explain, cheeks darkening as her eyes widen just a fraction as she takes in the tall man, shoulders slightly broad and face hard._ )

 

He swallows thickly, biting back the words he can feel wanting to spill out. Instead he gives one firm nod, a lingering look before he spins on his heel and, doesn’t quite, run away from his young soul-mate and her two friends.

He spends the next week drunk, keeping himself in a state of numbness and anger. He lashes out at Mick, who finally loses his temper and lands one solid hit to knock Len on his ass and out cold. After waking up, he doesn’t offer up an explanation for his behavior, but he at least dumps the rest down the drain.

 

( _Len pretends to ignore the look of relief flashing across his baby sister’s face, the way the worry and tension in her young body nearly vanishes as he dumps the whiskey down the drain._ )

 

Instead of letting himself go back under, Len decides to plan a heist in Keystone. Nothing major, but certainly something to help get his mind off the bold words decorating his left inner thigh.

Only he can’t. Every time he goes to scout a location, he sees her face flash through his mind, finds himself freezing, stomach churning with shame, something he thought Lewis beat out of him when he was a child and was scared of the dark. He knows he can’t let this go on, knows he needs to figure something out.

He knows she’ll have a bright future, it wasn’t hard to track her down when he recalled she was wearing a CCPD sweat. So he did a little digging and nearly felt like giving up, when he realized Iris West, his soul-mate, was the daughter of the man who arrested him not even eight months ago.

But Len swallowed his doubt, his insecurity and decided he wanted to be a part of her life. He wanted her to be able to look at him with pride, to look at him and not see his past, to look at him in fear and worry. He wanted both his soul-mates to be able to look at him and see a good man, not someone to be ashamed of.

So he and Lisa packed up after deciding they’d leave, so they could both get a real fresh start. Mick tagging along for the ride, citing someone needed to watch their backs. Throwing a dart at the map, they began the long trek to National City, where they would shed their past lives and become law abiding citizens.

 

( _“I can’t believe this,” Mick rumbled, arms crossed and eyes cast down._

_Len let out another sigh as he stacked another box into the back of the Mick’s pickup truck, “Like I said, you don’t need to come with us.”_

_“O’ course I’ma come with you, Snart,” Mick muttered, shooting the other man a glare, arms dropping as he stomped back into the house, muttering how Len would mostly get him and Lisa killed cause he couldn’t even boil a pot of water._ )

 

Using the cash they still had, they get a decent apartment to live in, while Mick and Len hunt down jobs. Lisa, not in the least bit thrilled that she has to attend her last two years of high school, but one look at her big brother’s face and seeing how much he wanted this for her, had her swallowing done every argument to get out of it.

So they settle in their crappy apartment, with their crappy jobs and their brand new starts and eventually learn how to be happy.

Getting his GED, was a whim decision, something that had to do with no one but proving to himself he was better than Lewis ever thought he could be or was. It’s the first step he really takes towards bettering himself.

It’s the first step towards a future he can be proud of. It is slow going and stressful at times. More than once Len has wanted to give up, to quit and go back to what he knows best, but every time a bashful smile flashes through his mind and his resolve hardens.

Eventually though, they get to a place where they don’t have to worry about covering rent or paying for Lisa’s university books or tuition because they discover the private sector and it’s everything they needed.

They start out small, mostly Mick and Len doing jobs to test security for small jewelry stores and small banks. Then insurance companies and big business pick them up and suddenly everyone wants Cold Security to work for them, to work with them.

 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

 

At 37, nearly ten years after they left, Len is finally back home, back in his city.

As far as everyone in his life is concerned, he’s setting up the brand new head quarts of Cold Security, but in reality, he’s back looking for his missing pieces. Back to find his soul-mates, back to find his happiness.

He’s not…he’s not exactly proud in the manner in which he does find his first set of words all over again. It’s not exactly the first impression in which he had hoped to make.

He’s short on sleep and ill-tempered from Lisa driving him up the wall all morning, when the reporter from Central City Picture News arrives for the scheduled interview they have this morning.

He speaks without looking up, believing it to be Lisa coming in to bother me once more, when he snarls at her, still flipping through the books.

 

_(“Damnit, Lisa,” he snaps out, voice close to a snarl, “I told you to leave me alone.” He doesn’t bother looking up until he hears a gasp and thuds of things being dropped to the floor.)_

 

Len’s head snaps up, stares at the young woman before him, her eyes wide in surprise, mouth open slightly in shock. He feels his own eyes widen in response, the pen in his hand slipping out and falling with a quiet thump onto his desk before rolling off and falling to the floor unnoticed.

“You…you said my, my words,” she starts, hands clutching as the hem of her jacket, cutting herself off and taking a few deep breathes as she takes a few tiny steps towards him before stopping and grimacing slightly, “Those have got to be the worst first words ever,” she sighs, shaking her head and giving him a wincing smile.

He watches as she squares her shoulders and strides over to him, hand out to shake, “I’m Iris West, Mr. Snart, I can’t tell you how nice it is to meet you.”

He stares at her dumb founded but eventually comes back to himself and shakes her hand as he insisted she call him Len. Ushering her to take a seat before explaining he’ll be locking the door, to avoid his nosy employees.

They spend the next three hours talking, would have been longer had she not had a previous engagement for work, but they make plans to meet later on in the week. The date turns out to be a lovely evening eating at an Italian restaurant Iris suggested. It’s a quiet evening that turns into movie dates, walks around the park and hours spent just being with one another.

He tells Iris about the first time he actually met her, tells her how it motivated him into turning his life around. Made him realize he wanted to be a better man for her, for his other soul-mate. Tells her about some of the things he did before he first met her, tells her about some of the crazy adventures he had after they moved away.

Iris in turn tells him about how she grew up with her other soul-mate, showing him where this, Barry, his words are branded on the back of her arm. She tells him about how they grew up chasing the impossible, pushing one another, hoping they’d find their missing piece. She tells him about her job, her father and how Barry was struck by lightning nearly three months ago.

 

( _“You have a second set, as well?” Her eyes are wide with excitement, as she stood up and pulled off her light sweater, turning around to show him the bold words that are going down the back of her left arm._

 

_‘You have such a pretty dress.’_

 

_Looking closer, he realizes they aren’t his words. Len pulls back, in stares at her in surprise, “I’d show you mine,” he waves his left hand towards his jeans, “But I’m afraid my own words aren’t meant to be shown so easily.”_

_He closes his eyes for a moment, basking in the warmth of her laughter before they shared a soft smile with the other, leaning back on Len’s couch._ )

 

It’s nearly three months after meeting, learning about each other, that Iris finally broaches the subject of Len meeting her father for the first time. It doesn’t go over well, Len isn’t exactly eager to be face to face with a man that arrested him in the past, especially not when he’ll be going as one of his daughter’s soul-mates. It’s the first fight they have.

Len cracks a week later, Iris refusing to back down, and even though he doesn’t want to either, Lisa refuses to let him screw up his relationship and forces him to go apologize and agree to the dinner with her father.

It takes another week, but they eventually have dinner at Joe’s. It’s tense and awkward but there’s no outright fighting, Joe doesn’t bring out his gun and fire at him and Len keeps himself from baiting the other man but it’s not quite a success, but Iris seemed happy at the end of the night.

 

( _“Thank you,” she murmured, leaning over the counsel to press a kiss to the corner of Len’s mouth. “I know that made you uncomfortable, but thank you for doing this for me.”_ )

 

They fall into a routine and fall in love with each, and when during their six month anniversary lunch, Iris gets a phone call telling her Barry Allen, her other soul-mate has woken from his nine month long coma.

 

( _“Are you sure you don’t want me coming with you?” Len asks, as he helps her gather her things to head over to the West house, where Barry apparently went to after waking up._

_“No, Len,” she shakes her head, pulling on her coat, “I think this’ll be easier for Barry if I show up alone. Give him a chance to get use to the changes, before I introduce him to my other soul-mate, you know? I don’t wanna over whelm him all at once with everything.”_

_Len swallows back the wave of hurt, knows Iris doesn’t mean it, that she’s just caught up in the excitement of her other soul-mate coming back to her. “Probably right,” he agrees after a moment, helps her slide her purse up onto her shoulder before pulling her into a deep kiss._

_“Love you,” he mutters against her lips as they pull apart, he rests his forehead against hers._

_“I love you too, Lenny,” she states, voice firm and unwavering, her eyes sparkling as she looking into his eyes, lips stretched into an impossibly wide smile._ )

 

It’s a difficult month, and Len knows he’s not helping but he can’t help but feel like he’s losing Iris to this faceless Barry Allen. It’s tense between them, made even tenser when Iris cancels on him for the third time.

He’s doing paper work, glaring down at the books when his assistant sticks her head in and lets him know he has a visitor. Sighing, he puts his pen down and closes his books just in time to stand up and put on a forced smile.

Iris slips in, lips twisted up into a small, anxious smile. “Hey,” she speaks as soon as she closes the door behind her, “You busy today?”

He feels his shoulders drop and he gives her a small nod, as he walks around to lean on the over side of his desk, legs kicked out and spread open, palms gripping the edge of his desk, as he watches her walk across the office.

Iris dropped her jacket and purse onto a chair, before falling into Len’s body, letting out a sigh of relief as he moves to warp his arms around her. “You okay?” he mumbled, dropping to rest his head against hers.

“Yeah,” she whispered into his chest, “I just wanted to come here and see you, make sure you were doing okay with everything that was going on,” she paused to pull her head back, “And see how you were doing.”

He couldn’t stop the curl of his lips as they moved upwards, even if he wanted to. Giving her a quick squeeze, he moved to settle his hands on her lower back, before slipping his hands into the back pockets of her jeans, “I’ll be fine.”

“Len,” Iris sighed out softly, moving her hands up to grip at his shoulders, she leveled him with an annoyed look. “I’m serious.”

“So am I,” he replied, voice a little tighter then it’d just been. Huffing, he pulled his left hand out of her pocket and brought it up to rub at his face for a moment, “Look, I know this time is difficult, it’s difficult for everyone. I mean,” he dropped his hand back down before swinging it back up to wave between them. “Your first soul-mate just woke up from a nine month long coma, there’s some red blur running around helping people. These aren’t exactly easy times.”

“And I’ve been neglecting you because of Barry,” she added, left hand going to wrap around his neck, thumb stroking his jaw. “This all sucks,” she agreed, biting her lip before glancing away, then looking back up at him. “I want you and Barry to meet, its way past time that you do.”

“Are you sure?” He felt himself tense, felt like there was an itch under his skin all of a sudden. “I don’t want to intrude on your time with him or his with you.”

Lifting up on the balls of her feet, she pressed a lingering kiss to his lips before pulling back to murmur against them, “You could never intrude, Len, you’re a part of me, just like Barry is.”

They spend the rest of the day together, Lisa happily promising Iris a spa day as they leave Cold Security and head over to Len’s apartment. They don’t do much, except lounge around in bed, eating Indian and watching reruns of the A-Team.

It doesn’t happen that week either, as the company takes a job to test the security of Queen Consolidated before going to Wayne Enterprises and Len’s gone for over two weeks. Then Iris is busy with her job when he gets back, and Barry apparently is also busy, though Len isn’t entirely sure with what.

It takes nearly three weeks after she suggested the idea, for all three of them to come together. Len cooks a nice dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, while Iris gets two dozen chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, as their her and Barry’s favorites. He finishes the finally touches by putting the homemade rolls on his dining room table when there’s a knock at his door.

He wipes his hand on the towel before slinging it over his shoulder as he makes his way to the door, opening it and sending a soft smile to Iris before turning to give a curious look to her other soul-mate.

“Oh my god, he’s freaking hot! Why didn’t you tell me he was this hot!”

Len freezes because those are the words that are wrapped around his left thigh, just under Iris's own bold words. He can see Iris freeze as well before turning to stare wide eyed at Len then turning to Barry as her lips spread into an exuberant smile, looking back between them every few seconds.

Len, Len tries to open his mouth before snapping it shut and opening the door wider, using his hand to motion them in.

 

( _Len has never in his life wished for something like he is at the moment, he should have quizzed Iris far more about Barry and his words, wishes he knew what was going to come flying out of his mouth any moment._ )

 

Barry is flushed bright red, head ducked down as he plays with the hem of his jacket, shyly looking up at Len through his long lashes, biting at the corner of his lips.

“Not so bad yourself, Scarlet,” Len drawls out, voice dropping as he shuts the door, taking a second before turning to look over in time to see Barry’s face brightening in excitement, barely has any time to catch the younger man when he throws himself at Len’s body.

Letting out a grunt, moving his left leg back to keep them up right, Len, he can’t help but lift his arms and wrap them around Barry in response to the brunette’s giddiness.

“You’re our soul-mate,” Barry mutters into Len’s neck, holding on for a few moments before pulling back, blinding grin lighting up his face before spinning around to pull Iris into a kiss.

Len can’t help but swallow, and subtly shift himself before they pull away from each other slowly. He knows without a doubt that he could very easily spend forever watching his soul-mates kiss, their utterly beautiful together, the contrast between them.

Iris grins, turning to move around Barry before pulling Len into a kiss, slowly backing him into the wall, while Barry stares open mouth.

They finally break apart when Barry release a faint whimper from watching them. Len looks over, licks his lips and lets out a soft groan as he watches Barry, watching them.

“Dinner first,” he growls out, gently pushing Iris away from him. “I, we’re eating dinner and getting to know each other before,” he pauses again to clear his throat and slide away from his girlfriend. “We’re doing this right.”

It takes a few minutes before they calm down, and gather around the table to eat and talk. It’s a little awkward but eventually they find a grove with one another. Iris helps easily, having a connection between both men, she helps smooth rough edges and talks them around ruffled feathers.

Dinner follows almost exactly how Len wooed Iris, movies, walks around the park and surprise trips to the history museum. It’s nice and easy and they fall into an easy rhythm quickly.

 

( _“YOU’RE THE FLASH?” Iris screams when Barry come cleans two weeks exactly after their first dinner._

_He looks miserable and ready to break under the onslaught of hurt looks Iris keeps shooting him, “Joe didn’t,” he starts before snapping his mouth shut and biting at his lip._

_"My dad didn't WHAT?" Her hands are on her hips, eyes narrowed to slits. "What didn't he want my SOUL MATE to tell me?"_

_Len looks between the pair, before bringing his hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose, "Scarlet," he barely keeps himself in check. He's seen the news, read about the kind of things Barry has been dealing with since waking up from the coma. "Iris," he adds, dropping his hand to reach out and grab hers. "We need to sit down and calmly talk this out. Like adults. You can go yell at Joe afterwards."_ )

 

They have their bumps and problems but in the end, their soul bond withstands the tests of time.

 

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**Author's Note:**

> I'm [Nixie](http://nixie-deangel.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Please don't be afraid to tell me what you think of this! Or any of my works! I adore comments!


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